Recently, demonstrative experiments for disbursement systems using electronic money have been successfully completed, thereby leading to a step of practical use of electronic money.
Presently, there are being conducted disbursement therefor and the like in retail stores, and there are being further conducted various endeavors including development of elemental technology, establishment of business model, and the like for widespread use of electronic money among general users.
In addition to usage in retail stores, there are being practically used those systems configured to settle up fares for trains or buses by virtue of functions of electronic money.
Electronic money is configured to be utilized by storing an exchangeable value, which is equivalent to money and is called “VALUE”, in an electronic money card, and by using the electronic money card as an electronic wallet.
The VALUE can be entered into an electronic money card by a specific terminal device (hereinafter called “electronic money terminal”). This entering procedure of VALUE is called “charge”.
Upon charging VALUE, collected from a user is an amount of money corresponding to the VALUE. This causes the VALUE to correspond to an actual amount of money, thereby guaranteeing the exchangeable value of the VALUE.
Further, disbursement by VALUE is conducted by subtracting an amount of VALUE corresponding to a disbursement price from an electronic money card through an electronic money terminal.
Electronic money cards can be each configured with a non-contact type IC (integrated circuit) card or a contact type IC card.
In case of an electronic money card configured with a non-contact type IC card, the latter is configured with: an IC chip having a VALUE handling function and a VALUE storage function; and an antenna configured to communicate with an electronic money terminal. In addition to usage for wireless communications with the electronic money terminal, the antenna also has a function for generating electric power for receiving radio waves from the electronic money terminal and for driving the IC chip.
The electronic money terminal is capable of wirelessly communicating with the IC chip within the electronic money card through the antenna to thereby access to the IC chip, thereby conducting various procedures (entering procedure, subtraction procedure, remaining amount reference procedure, and the like) for VALUE.
Main utilization types of electronic money cards are classified as follows:
(1) In Case of Charging VALUE
Firstly, there is set an electronic money card into an electronic money terminal in a store having the electronic money terminal installed therein, and it is asked for a person responsible for the electronic money terminal to enter VALUE into the electronic money card. At this time, there is paid an amount of money corresponding to the entered VALUE.
Next, the responsible person operates the electronic money terminal to enter the VALUE corresponding to the paid money, into the electronic money card.
This causes the electronic money terminal to transmit an entering command for adding an amount of VALUE corresponding to the paid money, toward the IC chip in the electronic money card.
In turn, the IC chip receives the entering command and executes it, to thereby add an amount of VALUE corresponding to the paid money to the VALUE stored in the IC chip.
In this way, it is possible to charge an amount of VALUE into an electronic money card.
Note that there exists an unmanned electronic money terminal configured to automatically conduct a charge upon insertion of money after setting an electronic money card into the electronic money terminal.
(2) In Case of Disbursement by VALUE
There is firstly pointed out a commodity or service subject to disbursement, to a person responsible for an electronic money terminal. Then, there is set an electronic money card into the electronic money terminal installed in a store, and it is stated to the responsible person that disbursement is to be conducted by VALUE.
In turn, the responsible person operates the electronic money terminal so as to subtract an amount of VALUE corresponding to the disbursing amount of money from the VALUE stored in the electronic money card.
Then, the electronic money terminal transmits: a subtraction command for subtracting an amount of VALUE corresponding to the amount of money; to the IC chip in the electronic money card.
The IC chip receives and executes the subtraction command, thereby subtracting an amount of VALUE corresponding to the disbursing amount of money, from the VALUE stored in the IC chip.
In this way, it is possible to conduct disbursement by means of VALUE in an electronic money card.
Note that there exists an example to provide a vending machine with an electronic money terminal in a manner to automatically conduct disbursement by VALUE upon purchase of a commodity by a user.
(3) In Case of Utilization of Electronic Money on Internet
It is possible to charge an amount of VALUE into an electronic money card and/or to conduct disbursement by VALUE stored in an electronic money card, by using a terminal device having an Internet connection function and having a reader/writer configured to conduct reading and entering for the electronic money card.
In case of charging VALUE, the electronic money card is set in the reader/writer, and the terminal device is connected to a site for conducting the charge at the terminal device. This leads to communications between a server apparatus and the electronic money card, so that the server apparatus is allowed to conduct a procedure for entering an amount of VALUE into the electronic money card. The amount of money corresponding to the entered amount of VALUE is withdrawn from a bank account of the user or dealt with by a credit card.
In case of disbursement by VALUE, there is similarly conducted communications between the server apparatus and the electronic money card, thereby achieving a subtraction procedure of VALUE.
In this way, electronic money cards are utilizable as electronic wallets of a prepaid type, and are particularly useful in disbursement of smaller amounts of money since users are not annoyed at handling of small coins.
Further, recently remarkable widespread use of portable telephones has led to an attempt to provide them with functions equivalent to those of electronic money cards.
Providing portable telephones with functions of electronic money cards allows users to charge amounts of VALUE into portable telephones, and/or to conduct disbursement procedures by VALUE stored in the portable telephones.
Examples of a technique for providing a portable telephone with a function of an electronic money card include the following:
[Patent literature 1] JP-A-2002-352173
The invention disclosed therein is configured to provide a portable telephone with a specific memory for storing therein VALUE, so as to charge an amount of VALUE into the specific memory, and so as to exemplarily conduct a disbursement procedure by the VALUE stored therein.